The Bigger Picture

Good morning,
 
I’ve found myself studying the life and teachings of Yahshua ever more closely these days, placing, as it were, each of his moves that have been chronicled under the microscope of my mind, searching through every nuance of his character for something new, something I have yet to discover, something I haven’t had…preached at me. The experience has been other worldly, as I guess it should be, meditation can be telescopic in that way. Place anything or anyone under its powerful lenses and you will find there is much more there than you ever expected, like the crowded, overpopulated city of cells in a single drop of blood.
 
I rummaged through the stories and accounts that have been told and retold countless times, at first unable to find anything new, for everything had been used, reused and recycled yet again. However, one day to my astonishment and glee I came upon a nugget in my sifting pan: a common thread that ran through each account of Yahshua’s life on earth. Everybody has a thesis. It is a statement that declares what you believe and what you intend to prove. Yahshua had one also, and it is in every story ever written of Him, in every word he uttered to His disciples, His friends, His family, even His enemies as he languished on the stake. For totality’s sake, let us begin at the beginning:
 
When Yahshua was born wise men came to visit him bearing gifts because they saw the star that they had been awaiting and knew that the Messiah had finally arrived. They held audience with King Herod for, who better to tell them of the new King’s whereabouts than the current King himself. Herod was baffled by this and more than a little concerned, so he asked them to bring word of their new King when they had found Him, and find Him they did, in the unlikeliest of places – not wrapped in a manger in swaddling clothes as we have always been led to believe by erroneous scenes of nativity, but as a toddler spending days running happily through a tiny house along with His mother. They bowed down and worshipped the young Savior and delivered their gifts, but did not return to Herod after being warned in a dream. The safety of the Son of Man was far more vital than any amount of foreign relations. They returned to their countries secretly, because when it came to Yahshua…there was a bigger picture.
 
At 12 years old we reacquaint ourselves with young Yahshua, and we find Him encircled in the Temple conversing with learned men, shedding light on subjects they thought they had full grasp of. His parents were out in the streets searching frantically, calling out his name in dismay. Finally after so many hours of looking they decided to check the one place a normal 12 year old would not have ventured had he procured for himself the freedom of at last being under no supervision. Mary and Joseph were grieved very much and asked, “how could you do this to us, we were so worried”. Yahshua answered, “why did you look for me in all those other places, didn’t you know I would be about my Father’s business?”. In essence he told his parents not to fret…there was a bigger picture.
 
At the beginning of His ministry we come upon Yahshua wading out into the River Jordan, John the Baptist watched Him as he approached, John swallowed hard trying to clear the nervous lump in his throat for he knew that the man standing before him was no average man, and this occasion was no typical baptism. John hesitated. “You?” he asked, “you come to me for baptism?” Yahshua nodded humbly smiling at His forerunner. “But I should be getting baptized by you!” he added. Yahshua touched his forearm gently and told him to let it be this way for now, “do you see the people on the river bank?” Yahshua asked. John nodded. Yahshua knew that this was an opportunity for Him to set an example, even though the Son of Man had no need of baptism by the hand of mortals, yet…there was a bigger picture.
 
One Sabbath day Yahshua and His Disciples wistfully strolled through a corn field and, as they were terribly hungry, they began to pluck ears of corn. The Pharisees, who seemed to always be on the scene to point out the wrong, but never around to help those in need (sounds like the NYPD), of course pointed out to Yahshua that it was unlawful to harvest food on the Sabbath. They were not wrong as far as the letter of the law is concerned, according to the law this was a trespass. Yahshua pointed out though, more for our benefit than for theirs, that unless we keep the Spirit of the Law it was unable to bring salvation. Laying a charge against a man for for this trespass was unjust, just as it is unjust for a man who, runs across a busy street to save the life of a child in the crosswalk only to be given a ticket for jay-walking by the city. Even when it came to the Law of Moses…there is a bigger picture.
 
When Yahshua told His disciples of heavenly things, using parables to drive His point home, they were often unable to take hold of the meanings. Many times they would be left scratching their heads asking themselves whether Yahshua was speaking literally or figuratively. When He told them that He must die in order to save the weak and the oppressed they denied it vehemently. Peter said it would not go down this way, but Yahshua rebuked Him because he did not “savor the things of Yahweh” but rather clung to earthly relationships. Peter finally understood after he had denied the Son of Man three times what Yahshua’s words really meant…there was a bigger picture.
 
As Yahshua bled on the stake, his fragile body going in and out of violent convulsions, the nails ripping through the center of his palm under the weight of his limp limbs which he was too weak to bear up on the wooden platform placed at his feet for support; as the sun baked his skin that had been shredded with the barbed whip of the cruel Roman Empire (a whip they still use with great efficiency today through Economic Slavery of the underclasses); as his throat dried up so that He found it hard to breathe, and people at the base of the tree looking up could hear the short wheezes as he took in His final breaths; as the thief to his left mocked Him for his willingness to die for no cause, and the one to his right worshipped Him for the same reason; Yahshua thought of you and I, and did not think it an injustice at all that he should bear the sins of the world, though His life was not marred with a single transgression, and his lips had never uttered a single offense, he bore willingly the pain and disgrace we deserved because in His divine nature he knew, as he had known from the foundation of the world…there was a bigger picture.
 
So today I hope this jars us all into real thought of what our purpose may be here on Earth. Is it to simply endure the tedious sermonizing of the same old lessons in the same old mode of thought, in the same old place we have always been? Is it to exist in this perpetual state of inaction, even as the trumpets of change blast all around us? Is it sufficient any more to praise and worship behind the four walls we find so much comfort in, as spiritual hermits, of whom the very neighborhoods we inhabit have no idea of our existence? Is it enough to remain ineffective in this war that wages so thunderously, as outdated unreliable weapons of artillery that simply will not fire though the enemy charges forward? This message is much bigger than us and our small insignificant lives, and our small insignificant differences that we can’t seem to find resolutions to. This message is much bigger than the slivers of truth we cling to for justification, the Holy Name, the Sabbath, The Feast Days. Oh yes, we are remarkably keen to make sure we count down the days with careful precision, but when was the last time we reached out to the masses who hold out their hands in extreme hunger and thirst. Sometimes I fear we resemble too closely the Pharisees yelling out “Do not pick that corn!”, never realizing in our programmed minds that… there is a bigger picture. 
 
Marc Wellington 
 
 
Scripture of The Day
Matthew 16:24-26 (New King James Version)
 
Then Yahshua said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his stake, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
 
Quote of The Day
 
“Fi kill di ghetto youths Babylon strong like a crane. Fi help the Black Woman dem weaker than a corn grain. Do not make dem fool you, The government dem run da biggest Bandulu.” – Sizzla Jamaican Songwriter/Singer
 
p.s. Thanks be to the Yahweh, ever loving, ever merciful, ever kind, ever righteous, ever true, for such a blessed Feast of Unleavened Bread. Although we return to our diets of yeast and leavening let us keep our houses purged of the leavening of the heart, remember there is a bigger picture and these Feast Days point toward it. If you would like to add a friend to this mailing list please send an email request. If you would like to be removed from this mailing list I will take request based on order of names. Today we start with names that begin with the number 1, 2, and 3. Pay attention because we start the letters as soon as the numbers are done.